Means for grinding card flats



06. 4, 1938. o HOPE 2,132,240

MEANS FOR GRINDING CARD FLATS Filed March 8, 193 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 1 I lki gwue/rvbo'b' ORV/LL15 L. Hops Oct. 4, 1938. o. L. HOPE MEANS FORGRINDING CARD FLATS Filed March 8, 195 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 OPV/LLE L. HOPEO L. HOPE Oct. 4-, i938.

MEANS FOR GRINDING CARD FLATS 4 Sheets-Sheet 5 Filed March 8, 193

ORWLLE L. HOPE 0. L. HOPE MEANS FOR GRINDING CARD FLATS Filed March 8,195 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 ORv/LLE L. HOPE Patented Oct. 4, 1938 UNITED STATESPATENT OFFICE Application March 8,

2 Claims.

This invention relates to a card grinding apparatus for grinding cardflats and more especially to means for properly positioning the flatsrelative to the card grinder as the flat teeth are ground thereby. Inthe grinding of card flats it has been the practice to guide the upperportion of, each end of the flats as they pass beneath the grindingcylinder by a pair of slides. These portions were held in slidingcontact with said slides by means of suitable pressure applying meanssuch as dogs which engaged the lower side of the flats at twointermediate points, each of the intermediate supporting points being anappreciable distance from the end of the flats.

' In order to exert sufficient upward pressure at each point to normallyhold the upper side of the card fiat against the two slides, anappreciable amount of upward deflection was caused in the centralportion thereof thereby causing the teeth in this central portion to beground more than the teeth at each end. This practice causes what iscommonly known as hollow flats which in turn, causes defective cardingwhen they are in operation with the carding cylinder.

It is therefore, an object of this invention to provide an apparatus forgrinding the teeth on card flats comprising a grinding cylinder, withguiding means for positioning the flats in grinding relation thereto anda pair of. weighted supporting means disposed at each end and on thelower side of said flats directly opposite said guiding means forholding the card flats in proper position relative to said guiding meansand said grinding cylinder. By providing the supporting meansoppositely, or directly beneath said guiding means, it is evident thatthe amount of pressure exerted by the supporting means will not in anyway cause the central portion of the card fiat to be deflected upwardly.Therefore, it is only necessary to provide an intermediate supportingmeans to compensate for the weight of the flat itself. This is done,where necessary, by providing a weighted support directly beneath thecentral portion of the flat to prevent any downward deflection thereof.Should the upward supporting means be disposed several inches from eachend of the card flat and if only enough upward pressure is exertedthereon to compensate for the deflection dueto the weight of. the flatitself, then this upward pressure would not be sufiicient to hold. thetop ends of the flat in contact with the guiding means during thegrinding operation.

It is a further object of this invention to provide a card flat havingsupporting means be- 1937, Serial No. 129,644

neath each end thereof normally pushing its ends against a pair ofguiding means, said guiding means comprising a pair of stationarybeveled surfaces which cause the flat to be so positioned that each ofthe teeth in the upper side of the 5 card flat will occupy the sameposition relative to-the grinding cylinder as the card flat passesthereby.

Some of the objects of the invention having been stated, other objectswill appear as the de- 10 scription proceeds, when taken in connectionwith the accompanying drawings, in which:-

Figure 1 is a side elevation of a portion of a card machine showing myinvention applied thereto;

Figure 2 is a cross sectional detail view through the carding machinetaken along the line 2-2 in Figure 1;

Figure 3 is an enlarged detail View of the end of, card flat grindingapparatus which is also shown in Figure 1;

Figure 4 is a vertical sectional view taken along the line 4-4 in Figure2;

Figure 5 is a sectional plan View taken along the line 5-5 in Figure 3;

Figure 6 is an isometric view of the supporting means for the other endof the card flats from that shown in Figures 3, 4, and 5, one of thesupporting means being shown in the left-hand portion of Figure 2;

Figure '7 is a vertical sectional View taken along the line 1-4 inFigure 2;

Figure 8 is an enlarged detail view looking at the end of the flatshowing its position relative to the supporting means, guiding means,and grinding cylinder when the flat is passing beneath the grindingcylinder.

Referring more specifically to the drawings, the numeral l0 denotes theframework of a suitable card machine which has rotatably mounted as atH, a card cylinder [2 which has teeth l3 therein, which normallycooperate with the teeth I4 in card flats l5 during a carding operation.The framework H] has mounted at one end thereof a lap roll l6 which isfed beneath feed roll I! into licker-in chamber 18 and then between thecard cylinder I2 and the card flats l5 to card the fibers and removeforeign matter therefrom and to aline the fibers. The card flats M aresecured to suitable chains 20 and 20, said 50 chains being mounted onsuitable conventional rollers 21, 22, 23, and 24, which, in turn, aresupported by brackets 25, 26, 21 and 28, respectively.

After continued use, it is necessary to sharpen the teeth M in the cardflats; therefore, a suitable grinding mechanism has been employed,comprising a pair of supporting stands 30 and 30' which have brackets 3!and 3| adjustably secured to the upper end thereof by any suitable meanssuch as bolts 32 and 32' respectively. The bolts 32 and 32 clamp thebrackets 3| and 3| to their support and the bolts 33 and 33 hold thebrackets 3| and 3| in the adjusted position. The brackets 3| and 3| areadapted to support a suitable shaft 35 upon which is mounted a grindingcylinder 36. Suitable guides 31 and 31' are secured to supporting stands30 and 30 by means of bolts 38. Fixedly secured to the lower surface ofsaid guides are beveled strips 39 and 39' which strips normally guidethe top surfaces 4!! on each end of the card flats, when the card flatis in grinding position. Disposed directly beneath the beveled strips 39and 39 and also directly below the ends of card flat I4 are supportingmeans 42, 43 and 42' and 43, the supporting means 42 and 43 beingadapted tosupport the right-hand end of card flat l4 as shown in Figure2, and the supporting means 42 and 43' being adapted to support theleft-hand end thereof.

Levers, or supporting means 42 and 43 are fixedly secured to stud shafts44 and 45 which in turn, are rotatably mounted in end support 30. Theother ends of shafts 44 and 45 have fixedly secured thereon levers 48and 49 which have weights 50 and respectively, adjustably secured on theends thereof. By regulating the distance at which a weight 50 or 5| islocated relative to the stud shafts 44 and 45, the amount of upwardpressure exerted by the supporting means 42 and 43 can be effectivelyregulated. The construction of the weighted levers 42 and 33 isidentical, and therefore, no description will be made, but likereference characters with prime notations will be given to like parts.

The supports 33 and 30 have integral therewith lower guide supports 55and 56 which support the lower ends of the card flats I4 prior to theirapproach to grinding position and after they have passed beyond thegrinding position. While the card flats are in grinding position, thesupporting means 42 and 43 flexibly support the flat in a position wherethe surfaces 40 and 40' will engage the lower side of bevel strips 39and 39 respectively.

It is necessary to provide a, pair of weighted supports such as 42 and43 beneath each end of the card flat when the same is in grindingposition because of the irregularity of the construction of the lowerside of each end. If only one dog were provided a uniform upwardpressure could not be exerted under the entire breadth of the flat endsso that the upper surfaces 40 and 40 of the flat would be held in firmcontact with strips 39 and 39'. It is also necessary to overlap the freeends of pressure applying means 42 and 43 so that both members willsimultaneously engage the ends of the flat from the time it comes togrinding position until after it has been ground. 4

When it is desired to eifect a grinding operation, a belt 60 is mountedupon pulleys 6| and 62, and the cylinder 36 is caused to rotate in acounter-clockwise manner in Figures 1, 3, 7 and 8. At the same time theweights 50 and 5! and their associated parts are placed in their properposition in order to exert the proper'upward pressure beneath the lowerends of the flats. The flats M are then caused to rotate in acounterclockwise manner in Figure 1 to thereby cause the top ends of theteeth M to engage the periphery of grinding cylinder 36 in a mannershown in Figure 8. It will be noted by referring to Figure 9 that sincethe surfaces 40 on the end thereof normally engage the lower beveledsurface of the strip 39, which is shown in dotted lines, the end of thecard flat will gradually move downwardly away from the grinding cylinderas the flat is moved to the left in the direction of the arrow; however,it will also be noted that the point of each of the teeth will be groundexactly at the same angle, although, the teeth in the left-hand edge ofthe flat are slightly shorter than the teeth on the right-hand edgethereof. This difference in length is very much exaggerated in thedrawings in order to properly illustrate the principle involved. By sogrinding the teeth in the card flat in this manner, when the teeth areplaced in carding position as shown in the lower portion of Figure 7,the long teeth on the right-hand side of the flat in Figure 8 aredisposed at the same distance from the card cylinder teeth l3 as theshort teeth, since the beveled upper ends 46 and 40 rest upon theflexible arch supports 63 and 63 on each side of the card cylinder, theperiphery of the arch supports being concentric with the periphery ofthe cylinder teeth. By grinding the flat teeth in the manner shown inFigure 8 the proper point is ground on each individual tooth and thepointed ends on all of the teeth fall in a plane which is parallel to aplane passing through top beveled surfaces 40 and 40'. By so grindingthe heel and'toe will be equidistant from the card cylinder when inoperative position.

The dotted line 65, in Figure 8, represents the line along which thedogs 42 and 43 exert upward pressure upon the lower side of flat duringthe grinding operation.

In order to compensate for the deflection caused by the weight of theflat I4 a suitable cross bar 66 has its ends fixedly secured in thesupports 30 and 30. Secured to the central portion of bar is a bracket6'! by any suitable means such as bolt 68, said bracket having pivotedas at 69 a lever 70. This lever has the left-hand portion thereof,(Figure '7), extending upwardly and normally engaging the lowerintermediate portion of the flat l4. Where the flats have been properlydesigned as to strength it is seldom that this pressure applying meansis necessary; however, in case of a very weak structure where the stresscaused by the grinding and the initial weight of the flat will causedownward deflection in the central portion thereof, it is necessary toprovide a lever 70 pivoted as shown with a suitable adjustable weight Hsecured on the end thereof. It is quite evident that if there is adeflection of the flat in the central portion thereof, that this pointis the proper place to apply the weight to remedy the defect.

As heretofore stated, should the weight be applied at a short distancefrom each end, then at least two of such devices as shown would benecessary and at the same time it would be very much harder to determinethe amount of upward stress necessary at these points to produce thedesired upward deflection at the central portion thereof; however, itwould also be necessary to add additional stress for holding the ends40and 40' in contact with strips 39 and 39'. This additional stress, ofcourse, would cause an objectionable upward deflection at the center ofthe fiat and cause the teeth at the point to be ground more thannecessary.

It is therefore seen that I have provided a card grinding apparatus forgrinding flats, said apparatus comprising a pair of guide ways forproperly positioning each flat as it passes by the grinding cylinder andmeans disposed directly below the flat ends and said guiding means forexerting upward pressure against the lower ends of the flat to hold themin the proper position relative to the cylinder.

In the drawings and specification there has been set forth a preferredembodiment of the invention, and although specific terms are employed,they are used in a generic and descriptive sense only, and not forpurposes of limitation, the scope of the invention being set forth inthe appended claims.

I claim:

1. In a carding machine having a carding cylinder equipped with cardclothing provided with teeth and having a pair of endless chains towhich the flats are secured and said flats having teeth therein forcooperation with the teeth on the card clothing, apparatus for grindingthe teeth on the flats comprising a grinding cylinder disposedtransversely of the machine and in alinement with the flats, fixed cammeans for engaging the upper surfaces of the extremities of the flats asthey approach and move past the grinding cylinder, a pair of weighted,pivoted and oppositely directed levers having side by side cam portionsfor engaging the extremities of the flats in the same vertical plane inwhich said fixed cam means are disposed to hold the flats against saidcam means while the teeth thereof are engaged by said grinding cylinder,and means for engaging the central portion of the flats for holdingtheir central portion in the same horizontal plane occupied by theextremities of the flats while the flats are in grinding position.

2. In a carding machine having a frame, a carding cylinder and a pair ofendless chains to which a plurality of toothed flats are secured,apparatus for grinding the teeth on the flats comprising a pair ofbrackets secured to the sides of the frame, a fixed cam on each bracketfor engaging the extremities of the flats as they are moved past thecams, a grinding cylinder for engaging the teeth in the flats, a pair ofpivoted levers having side by side end portions disposed in parallelrelation and having cam surfaces thereon for engaging the extremities ofthe flats on their lower sides in the same vertical plane as thatoccupied by the said fixed cams, a weight on each lever for holding thesaid parallel end portions against the said flats to press theextremities of the flats against said cams while the flats are beingpassed beneath the grinding cylinder and a pivoted lever having a weighton one end and a cam surface on the other end for engaging the centralportion of each flat as it is moved beneath the grinding cylinder.

ORVILLE L. HOPE.

